


When I'm on, I believe you (When I'm not, my knees don't even seem to feel)

by no_nutcracker



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Merlin (TV)
Genre: Merlin is So Done (Merlin)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:41:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28741188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/no_nutcracker/pseuds/no_nutcracker
Summary: In the Wizarding World, the Great Merlin is viewed as a God.And he is.And he is not.After all, Gods are not supposed to walk among us.For his part, Harry is not impressed.
Relationships: Merlin & The Wizarding World
Comments: 14
Kudos: 178





	When I'm on, I believe you (When I'm not, my knees don't even seem to feel)

**Author's Note:**

> title from the song 'How' from the Neighbourhood

'Is this any way to behave?'

The library falls silent. Mr. Weasley and Malfoy's dad stop fighting. Everyone turns in slow motion toward the figure that spoke.

Mrs. Weasley gasps. Hagrid lets his umbrella fall to the ground. Malfoy's eyes bulge out. 

Harry frowns in confusion. 'Who is this?,' he whispers.

The dark haired man's head swivels and his eyes dig into him. Harry hears Ron gulping at his side. 'Who I am? I think the right question should be: what is happening here?' 

The man turns toward Mr. Weasley and Malfoy's dad with a disappointed moue and waves his hand. His eyes go _golden_ and in a beat the two men are separated by a foot of space and facing the unknown man. 

Harry doesn't like the situation they are in at all. He grabs Ron's sleeve and goes to drag him away but his friend frees himself from his hold and stays put. His attention is focused on the man. Actually, the whole library's attention is focused on the stranger. Whoever he is he must be even more famous than Lockhart and powerful than Draco's father.

And what is with the golden eyes? Harry has never seen anyone using magic having glowing eyes.

'Well. Care to explain it to me?' his voice is a long even drawl. He looks from the ghostly pale figure of Mr. Weasley to the ashamed face of Malfoy's dad. 'Cat got your tongue?' He taunts.

Malfoy's dad's jaw ticks nervously.

Mr. Weasley coughs to hide his embarrassment. The man's gaze fixes on him. Mr. Weasley's ears redden. He looks intently at the ground. 'We had a... bit of a disagreement, my Lord.' 

The _Lord -_ and what's with that term?!- hums. 'And like unruly children you decided to resolved the matter with your fists. What a good example for your children. They must be so proud.'

Harry advances and opens his mouth to defend Mr. Weasley when he is stopped again by Ron catching his left arm. His friend shakes violently his head no! What is Merlin's name is happening? Harry clenches his jaw but steps back at his friend's side.

Harry catches Draco's father smirking victoriously. _This is unfair!_ , he wants to shout. 

The stranger twists his head to give an unimpressed look Senior Malfoy's way. The man's face decomposes and goes pasty white. 

Good! Mr. Weasley is a good man. He should not be humiliated. Even less so because he was defending his family's honor!

'Lucius, do not take joy in it. I rather think your own son ought to be ashamed by your behaviour. Is this what you want to teach your children? To brawl in public places for the sake of an old feud? Is this what impression you want to leave your fellow citizens of the government you are both supposed to represent?' The man's eyes flash. 'Oh, what a pretty picture the two of you make with your cut cheek and your blackeye. Well you've caught me. I am impressed.'

Both men flee his stare and stay mum. The 'Lord' looks impassively at them. When no reply comes, he huffs and waves his hands in the air again. The fallen shelves fly back to their places, the broken tables are repaired, the books reshelve themselves and the traces of blood fade away. In a matter of seconds, the library is cleaned an no trace of the fight is to be seen.

Wandless Magic! Harry had learned from Hermione that only the most powerful wizards could use it and he had not thought anyone except Dumbledore could in their time. Despite himself, Harry finds that he is impressed by the man.

'This,' he gestures between the two men, 'will never happen again. You work at the same place and I expect you to now act with decency. No sneers, no snide comments,' he says at he fixes Malfoy with a piercing eyes, 'no degrading anyone's name or profession.' Malfoy nods vigorously. The man turns toward Mr. Weasley: 'No losing your temper, no insults. You are both adults, it's damn time your start acting like it.'

Both men bow their heads respectfully.

The still-left-unknown-man goes to leave but throws one last glance Malfoy's way. 'Oh and Lucius. Burn this hideous book before I take care of it myself.' Malfoy's weak countenance goes even more weaker. 'And if I hear the dirty 'M' word cross your lips again, I will stitch them.'

The library is silent for a beat after the man's swift departure. Then it erupts into chaotic noise and flurry movements.

'Who was this man!' Harry shouts to be overheard over the noise.

Ron's hands are trembling.

'Ron?,' he calls warily.

Hermione, who had to push her way througth the crowd to get to them, yells: 'I can not believe it! I never thought I would have the privilege of seeing Him for real! I think I'm going to faint. Do you think He will be offended if I go find Him and asks Him questions about Camelot?!'

...Which does not actually helps him identify the man.

'Oh my- oh my- oh my!,' Ron gasps. 'Did this really happen?!'

Everone around them is basically acting the same way; overexcited or rendered speechless from shock. The only ones left 'sane' from the chaos are Mr. Weasley who is trying to calm an upset Mrs. Weasley and Malfoy's father. The latter is staring thoughtfully at the place the man stood before he left. His right hand is placed on his left side, as if he is covering something hidden in his jacket. Draco appears at his father's side, which finally snaps him from his contemplation. The man put his hand away and leads Draco out of the library.

Whatever Mr. Malfoy had been planning to do, it seems the Lord's intervention was enough to make him change his mind. Good. Harry has enough of Draco at school, he does not want to find out how much of a greater git his father must be. Even if he already got a sample of it from him goading Mr. Weasley into a fight.

'I don't understand!,' Harry shouts. 'Who was this guy?!'

Hermione stares at him bewildered: 'What do you mean 'who was this guy'? It is Merlin, Harry!' 

Harry freezes. He must have heard wrong. 

'The Great Merlin!,' his friend-who-would-not-be-joking-about-that-kind-of-thing yells, somehow offended by his ignorance.

But also: Merlin?! The _Merlin_ from the legends? The one they all swear by as if he is God? That Merlin is alive?!! How was Harry supposed to know that?

Hermione puts her hands on her hips and lectures: 'It is in every book imaginable, Harry. Even those about professor Lockhart talk a bit about Merlin. He is still alive because he is the Incarnation of Magic and as such is immortal.'

Dazzled, Harry asks: 'Like Nicholas Flamel?'

Hermione and Ron shake their head. 'No, Nicholas Flamel had to create the Philosopher's stone to become immortal. Merlin's Magic is what keeps him alive.'

'We have magic too.'

Ron, who seems to have finally recovered from his shock, helpfully puts in: 'We have magic but we are not made of it. We are human. Merlin is not. He is a creature of Magic. Like the unicorns. Like the Great Dragons were.'

'They say that He shall disappear only when Magic disappears from the world,' Hermione reverently adds.

Ron nods slowly, apparently sharing Hermione's awe. 

Harry frowns in confusion. 'Why did not I hear about this before?'

Ron steps in before Hermione's bushy hair gets a mind of its own and attacks Harry from frustration. 'He rarely comes into our world. He prefers to stay in the Muggle one. It is why you did not recognise Him.'

Hermione relaxes. 'Yes. He dislikes the awe the wizards show Him and chose to live with the muggles centuries ago.'

Harry can understand that. He already has to bear the pressure of his 'fame' thanks to what happened between him and Voldemort when he was a toddler. He can not imagine how much worst it must be for Merlin, _the greatest wizard who ever lived_. 

Still, it does not make any sense. Instead of treating muggles and muggleborns like dirt, should not wizards be more acceptiong of them? 

'And people still dare to hold prejudice against muggles? When Merlin chooses to live with them?!' 

'I think it plays a great part in their animosity,' Hermione muses. 'They are jealous that Merlin chose to stay with muggles rather than to live with them in the Magical Community. Like muggles have stolen Him from them.'

Ron nods. 'It plays a great part, yes. People like the Malfoys, they don't actually dislike muggles and muggleborns for the sake of it. After all, Merlin's mother was a muggle herself. And no one would dare to insult _Merlin_ 's mother. They mistreat them because they are jealous.'

Harry taps his foot in frustration. 'But if he rarely comes in the Wizarding World why has he come now?' 

Is it because of what happened the previous year with Voldemort? And if it is, then it brings another bigger question: why had not the man done anything to stop the war years ago?

His friends exchange an uneasy look. 'I don't know,' Hermione admits with a shake of her head.

He knows frustration is piling in her the same way it does in him. Harry looks at Ron and finds him already staring at him.

He grins. It seems like they have another mystery to solve.

*

Hermione said that Merlin was in every book. He is. Yet there is actually very little that is known about the man. 

Hermione explains that: 'Merlin never liked to talk about Himself. The most anyone got from Him where stories about King Arthur, Queen Guinevere and the knights of the Round Table.'

'Morgana Pendragon if He was in a fool mood,' Ron adds between two bites of roasted chicken.

'Yes, exactly. But He rarely talks about Himself. We know He was raised as a peasant in a small village by His muggle mother until He was a teenager.' Hermione raises her hands and counts down her fingers as she lists it all. 'That He came to Camelot to apprentice as a physician. That He ended up as Arthur's servant when he was still a prince.'

'Wait! Merlin was a servant?'

Hermione nods. 'Yes, he was.'

'King Uther, Arthur and Morgana's father, gifted the position to Him when He saved Arthur's life,' Ron adds through a mouthful of potatoes.

Uther is Morgana's father? Funny, in the rare versions Harry got to read when he was a child, when he had the chance to read for his own pleasure, she was always queen Ygraine's mother.

'It is when He learned of his Destiny,' Hermione puts another finger down with excitement.

'What Destiny?'

'To bring Magic back into the world and help King Arthur bring upon the time for Albion,' Hermione and Ron and Seamus and Dean and Neville respond in unison. 

Harry startles from surprise. That was freaky.

Also: why would Merlin have needed to 'bring Magic back'? And what is Albion? 

Harry does not get the time to ask. Seamus shouts in glee before he can. 'You're talking about Merlin's visit in Diagon Alley, ain't you? Of course you are. It's all everyone is talking about!'

'How could they not?' Dean nods excitedly next to him. 'I think it's awesome. **Merlin**. In Diagon Alley! Stopping a fight.'

'I wish I had been there,' Lavender whines somewhere on Harry's right. 'I'd give everything just to peek at His lovely cheekbones.'

Harry grimaces. 

*

It is in the _First Edition of Vita Merlini_ , written by Geoffrey of Monmouth, a man who used to live in Camelot at the time Merlin did.

King Uther bargained with the Priestess Nimueh to have a son. An heir for his throne. But _to give a life, a life must be taken_. The life that was taken was Queen Ygraine's. The King did not accept the heavy price and blamed Magic for the loss of his wife. He started a war against Magic. He killed sorcerers and sympathisants, murdered Priestesses and Priests of the Old Religion, hunted down druids and drowned children. He organised a massive assassination of the Great Dragons and their Dragonlords and only kept one dragon alive, chained under his castle. As a reminder of his crime.

Magic requires balance. When Uther tipped the balance, Magic created something that would right it. Someone. And Merlin, someone that had the power of thousands of dead magic users and slayed dragons, was born.

*

'Why does no one teach us about it? It is much more interesting than goblins' wars.'

'You learn about it before you come to Hogwarts,' Ron replies before Hermione can. 'Our parents tell us all the stories. It is all common knowledge,' he shrugs.

Hermione and Harry exchange a glance. 'Common knowledge' except for muggleborns who are raised to believe than Merlin is an old wizard with a long white beard and blue dresses with twinkles on it, and that everything related to Camelot is fictionnal.

'What does he do now?' Harry asks his friends. Curious about the seemingly young wizard. 'He can not be breaking fights all the time.'

Ron reddens at the reminder that his father had been the one fighting. He shrugs nervously. 'Don't know. No ones knows. He likes to travel. Sometimes He is a merchant, sometimes He is a teacher. Often times, He is a healer. Though I think He was a singer last time I heard?'

Harry looks at his friends with beffudlement.

'I don't know mate. He is fifteen hundreds years old. He had all the time to do everything and visit everywhere. Everything must be pretty much dull to Him.' 

*

There was a prophecy about Emrys and the Once and Future King. Emrys was supposed to be The Most Powerful Sorcerer to Ever Walk the Earth, Past, Present and Future. He and the Once and Future King were destined to bring Magic back into the realms and bring upon the Time Of Albion. Albion was another world for what you'd now call Utopia.

*

'King Arthur died before Albion could be built,' Hermione continues. 'He was killed by Mordred who,' Hermione looks around them nervously and reveals in a lower tone,' was never Morgana and Arthur's child.'

'Oh?'

Hermione keeps looking around the castle's corridor for prying eyes. Harry guesses the incestuous bits of the legend is something of an offense in the Wizarding World. After all, it is not myths here. It is History. 

'In fact, Mordred was not related to either of them. He was a druid who was saved by Merlin as a child. He bonded with Morgana when Merlin brought him to her to be hidden from Uther.'

Well. Talk about a mess.

Hermione puts an escaped strand of hair behind her left ear. 'It was Queen Guenever that lifted the ban on Magic,' she says in a louder tone. 'And it is with her that Merlin built Albion.'

*

It takes several weeks but calm settles back inside the Castle. Even the teachers stop gossiping among themselves (and who knew teachers could gossip like excited children?).

Harry continues to read about Merlin. He devours the _Second Edition of Vita Merlini_ and the _History of Camelot: First, Second and Third Editions_ all written by Christian of Troy. As well as _Revelations on the Lake of Avalon_ by Bathilda Bagshot.

*

Apart from Lockhart being a poor fraud of a teacher, nothing happens this year.

(Well, the school discovers he is a parselmouth but he won't be talking about _that_.)

He does not hear about Merlin for the years to come.

*

And then the Triwizards Tournament happens.

*

'Kill the spare,' ripples throught the air and Harry feels his mouth go dry.

A green beam flies towards Cedric and Harry knows without a doubt that there is nothing to do to save his friend. He can only watch his body crumple to the floor like his mother did all those years ago.

Except: Cedric does not die.

Harry blinks in shock.

Cedric is still alive and breathing and holding his wand in a white fist. His face is disfigured by terror.

The spell was stopped.

Hands clap in the following stunned silence. Harry jerks his head back toward the sound. A figure appears. It is a man dressed in muggle clothes and wearing a mischievious grin.

Harry knows him.

'Lord Merlin,' he hears someone whisper reverently.

As one, the Death Eaters cursty. Voldemort does not move. He appears as shoked as Harry feels.

'My Lord,' he breathes. 'With all respect, what are you doing here?'

Merlin gets closer to them but keeps an equal distance between Voldemort and his followers on one side, and Cedric and a spelled Harry on the other. 

He hums.

'You're right that I have better things to do than to visit creepy graveyards in the middle of the day, Tom.' Voldemort's lips thin when Merlin says his true name. However, he noticeably does not correct him nor does he adopts a violent stance. 'But I heard about your little,' Merlin's eyes flight on the Death Eaters' still bowed forms and his own lips form a disgusted pout, 'reunion. I just had to come.' 

Merlin offers a guileless smile. Harry would be shocked by how young and naive it makes him look if he was not still tied to a stone and terrified for Cedric and himself.

Voldemort grins. 'You came for me, my Lord?' He sounds pleased.

Harry feels disgust and rage curl in his belly. He fights against his restraints. Cedric glances at him and starts to advance on him. Harry shakes his head violently. 

Cedric stops. He glances back toward Merlin and Voldemort. He looks frustrated but stays put.

Harry breaths in relief.

'You can say that,' Merlin answers flatly. 'And now that I have witnessed your return, I will take my leave. With these two in tow.' He gestures at Cedric and Harry.

Voldemort's eyes narrow. His red eyes fix Harry for a beat before they fly back to Merlin, attracted like a moth to a flame. 'I am beyond sorry, my Lord. But I am afraid I can not let you do that. You see, these two, or at least one of them is mine.'

Merlin's smile has frozen on his face. 'You dare to tell me what to do?,' he asks in the coldest voice Harry has ever heard.

His hair stand on his scalp. Harry shivers, not from the temperature that has dropped but from the danger the threat implies. Cedric looks at Harry with wariness and slowly gets closer to him. The Death Eaters, who had started to rise back during the conversation, fall back to the ground. 

Voldemort himself seems glued to his spot. His reptilian face looks like it had stumbled upon a prey too big for him and turned into a predator about to shred him. 'No, my Lord,' he shakily replies.

Merlin stares him down for a couple more minutes. Harry strains against his restraints and wishes it would all stop soon. Merlin stays unmovable. 

'Destiny always come, Tom. What must happen will.'

With those nonsensical words, Merlin turns his back on Voldemort and walks toward Cedric and he. His eyes turn gold and Harry's restraints break. 

Harry falls to the floor with a yelp. Cedric runs to him and helps him stand.

'You're okay?,' he questions in a low tone.

Harry nods. He looks back at Voldemort. He will not let them go, will he? He has tried everything to kill Harry since he was a babe, he is not going to stop now? 

Voldemort does not make a gesture towards him.

Merlin the Great closes on them and whisks them away.

*

It is in every journal. _Voldemort is back_ and _The Great Merlin saved Harry Potter from Certain Death_ are fighting for headlines.

Harry does not bother to read them. First, he was here. Second, his mind is too busy to focus on anything.

Voldemort, who is a bloody tyrant and would not hesitate to fight Dumbledore whom he resents and respects in equal measure, did not even raised his arm against Merlin.

Merlin who walks like a god among sorcerers but who had a _muggle_ mother. 

It seems that even Voldemort veneers him enough not to attack him. Even when it means he loses his chance at killing Harry. 

Harry is not sure if it reassures him or makes him wary. Because if Merlin has that much power and attracts so much respect in the Wizarding World, then why is he not using it to stop the war? Stop Voldemort?

He spoke about destiny. Hermione once said that Merlin would never go against _Destiny_ after what happened in Camelot. Is it what is stopping him from interfering now? But what does destiny has to do with Voldemort and Harry?

* 

'Should not we ask for Merlin's help?' he asks once during the following summer.

It has been weeks of the Order speaking about how to get rid of Voldemort. Even if none of the children are 'supposed' to know about it. And not once did anyone mention Merlin.

Now, everyone who is ensconsed in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place turns big shocked eyes on him. Even Sirius looks taken aback. Harry fights to stand strong under the attention instead of shrinking on himself.

'We can not,' professor Dumbledore says. 

It is the first time he acknowleges Harry's presence since the Triwizard Tournament. Harry takes it in stride.

'Why not?'

'Because it goes against His wishes.'

Harry gasps at him in astonishment. When the professor does not add anything else and keeps on staring at him, Harry frowns and sees red.

'Because it goes against His wishes?! What bullshit is that?' Harry hears Mrs. Weasly gasps in shock but does not let it interrupt him. 'People are goind to die! People are dying. Should not it push him to act and help us?!'

The professor stares at him without any twinkles in his eyes. 'Do you know how we built the Wizarding World?,' he asks in a low, serious tone. 'How do we hid from the muggles, Harry?'

Harry swallows. He is aware of the tension that is permeating the air. Professor Dumbledore's intense eyes and low-pitched voice only makes it more heavier. 'No,' he pitches.

'After the witches' hunt in the sixteenth century, wizards decided to break from the muggle's community and to built a firm barrier between our worlds. To keep us hidden. To keep us safe.' Harry gets a foreboding feeling. 'Merlin helped. He gifted us a bit of His Magic and it was enough to help us build everything. And during the decades that followed, everything got along marvelously. Until our ancestors got greedy and decided they wanted more. More than alliances with creatures they thought beneath them. More than newly found wizards and witches not bounded to the community by blood. More than living in the shadows. We started to fight and forgot all about peace. We only thought about glorious wars and blood superiority. We showed disrepect to magical creatures, and mistrust on everything that was muggle related. And in doing so we have shamed Him. It is why He won't help us anymore. Why He stays away.'

'When we broke from muggles in the sixteenth century and left to built a safe haven, Merlin has said that He would take the gift back if we were to misuse it. Instead of doing so, He choses to punish us by abandonning us.'

Harry's mouth is dry. 'That is not fair,' pushes throught his teeth.

'No, it is not,' the professor agrees tiredly. He looks at old and wary as his age make him. 'But do keep in mind that He was born fifteen hundreds years ago, Harry. In the midst of a war infinitely more bloody and destructive than any you could witness. He fought in it and bled for it, until He brought peace. He worked for centuries to keep this peace. Then His own kind chose to break it and kill each other for greed. For power. For blood purity. We started a war against the magical creatures. We started a war against ourselves for petty reasons. Because it is human nature. Merlin has abandonned us because we abused our powers and spit on everything He did for us.'

'No,' professor Dumbledore concluded. 'He won't help us. And no, we won't ask Him for assistance. We did this to ourselves. It is up to us to save ourselves.'

*

If Merlin had heard Albus Dumbledore's words a year ago, he would not have disagreed. And yet the man forgot something important. 

**We all matter.**

Merlin can distinguish a group of insane followers from a prejudiced bunch of people from a mostly accepting community. Which means that, even when he thinks the wizards and witches of the current age do not deserve his help, he still gives it to them. Even when Merlin is tired and angry and gutted, he is still willing to help people. 

Kilgharrah has once said that Merlin's ' _willingness to see goodness in people would be [his] undoing_ '. Yet, what does Immortality and unlimited Magic for if he refuses to use them?

Moreso, Merlin knows all to well what growing up in the aftermath of a war means. He is not about to let children go through it. Just because he can not do anything for Harry Potter -who is firmly in Destiny's clutches- does not mean he can not help any of them.

He saved Ginny Weasley from possession. He arrived just in time to stop an imperiused Victor Krum from cursing Fleur Delacour with the cruciatus. He rescued a condemned Cedric Diggory. He deflected any attempts Dolores Umbrigde made to hurt Hogwarts' students and denounced her attempts to the press. And when Amelia Bones took Fudge's place as Minister of Magic (because the man's incompetence had gotten too much on Merlin's nerves and he had him revoked), Merlin put as many spells as he could around her house. To keep any unwanted attention and bewitched mind to enter and take her underage niece from her.

And now it is time he comes and saves another child.

*

They are sitted at what has becomed the Dark Lord's table in the grand hall of their Manor. Lucius and Narcissa are sitted next to each other, their underage son between them, in a throng of Death Eaters. The Dark Lord is at the head of the table. He is distractedly twisting his wand between his long fingers, while listening Nott lists all the next appliances to his ranks.

Ranks that will soon include Draco.

Narcissa desperately wants to weep.

How could they let this happen? She never wanted that for her precious boy. She only wanted the best for him, for them. 

And what if she had wanted more in her youth? Everyone wants Glory and Honor. Moreso when you come from the Noble House of Black. Should her and Lucius be punished for doing everything in their power to gain it? 

Narcissa looks sideways at the Dark Lord.

Maybe. After all, there is a difference between ambition and madness. Narcissa should have recognised it when she met him all these decades ago.

_She never wanted that for her boy._

Nott is still drawling the list of names, when Pettigrew rushes in and scampers to the head of the table. 

_**Pettigrew**_. If she could curl her lips in disgust without ruining her polished figure, Narcissa would. What a disguting waste of space. She could never understand what her cousin Sirius saw in him. Even less now that he spent all his time crawling on his knees for the smallest scrap of attention.

Rotten rat.

'My- my lord,' Pettigrew stutters.

'Wormtail,' the Dark Lord acknowledges with glimmering eyes. 'What right have you to interrupt this important session. You ought to be punished for that, you know that. Don't you.'

The Dark Lord does not ask questions. He states facts. Often displeasant ones.

Pettigrew's whole body trembles. 'I know my lord, but. He is here,' he whispers with a weight none of them understand, if she translates correctly the glances her fellow Death Eaters exchange.

Bella looks at Pettigrew with hunger in her eyes. For blood, no doubt.

Narcissa shares a look with her husband.

The Dark Lord is getting impatient. 'He who, Wormtail.'

'I am afraid he means me,' a voice, His voice, resounds.

As one, all the heads turn to face the being that entered unnoticed in the hall. And oh... How could they have missed His entrance? The books are right. He is impossible not to recognise. Not to _feel_. His whole being emanates Magic. It resonates with Narcissa's own. It makes hers want to rush and join with His. To sing with His.

Lucius had told her so when he met Him all those years ago, in Draco's second year. Yet, knowing about it and _feeling_ it? She finds that the difference holds a gigantic gap.

Their Lord's smile is conniving. He walks closer to them. 

They stand, still in unison, and fall into deep bows.

'It's alright,' she hears Him say. 'Don't bother. I was never one for bows and reverences.'

Yet, how else is someone supposed to act when they encounter their Deity?

They listen to His words and sit back on their chairs. Some of them can not help but fidget in their place. 

Narcissa does not. She glances at her son and husband. Draco's already palid face has lost more colors. Lucius is staring at the Lords with a clenched jaw. 

'What can I do for you, my Lord?,' the Dark Lord inquires with genuine interest, succedding in regaining her attention.

It seems a correction is needed. The Dark Lord does not ask question, except when he is confronted with the Greatest Sorcerer who Ever Lived. 

She can not fault him for it.

The Great Merlin smiles begninely at him. He turns toward the table, so his gaze can encompass all of them. His eyes graze Pettigrew's lowly figure and flash. 

It seems Narcissa is not the only one displeased with the rat.

As if he can sense her satisfaction, the Lord's stare goes from Pettigrew's mass on the floor to her own figure. Narcissa holds his penetrating gaze without flinching. She feels her precious boy go rigid at her side. She silently prays he does not attract attention.

_He does._ The Great Merlin's entracing eyes fix on Draco. Which attracts the whole's room attention. Draco stays unmoveable.

The Great Merlin points at him. 'Him.' Narcissa freezes. 'I'm here for him.'

The hall stays silent. They keep on looking from Draco's white but composed face to the smiling face of their Lord. 

Bella opens her mouth to speak. Narcissa hopes her sister does not say anything that could antoganise Him and threaten Draco's welfare. More than it already is by the Dark Lord's presence. 

'Pardon me, my Lord. But what could You want with an underage wizard? He has yet to finish his schooling.'

Merlin the Great raises an eyebrow. Several of the members at the table flinch. 'What could _you_ possibly do with an underage wizard?' Bella goes to respond. The Prince of Enchanters does not let her and waves the matter away. 'I am here because you are in the middle of a war and I am very against letting children fight in those.' He turns to look at Lord Voldemort with a disappointed frown.

_Disappointed frown_. Narcissa feels light-headed. She never thought she would see someone look at the Dark Lord as one would a misbehaving child. And yet. The Greatest Sorcerer of all Times is crossing his arms and looking reprovingly at him.

He hums disapprovingly. 'I thought I had made my opinion clear on the subject when you came back to grace us with your presence, Tom.'

The Dark Lord's slit pupils stare blankly back.

The Great Merlin shakes his head. 'If you want to fight a war, you fight it yourself. You leave the children out of it.' He turns to face all of them, his voice echoing loudly in the room and vibrating through their bodies. 'YOU LEAVE THE CHILDREN OUT OF YOUR WARS.'

The magic she feels coursing through her no longer feels joyous. It is sad and angry at her. Disappointed. Although, Narcissa knows its effects are lenient on her. All around the table, members are falling to the ground, whimpering from vicious waves of pain. Narcissa does not feel pained, only an enormous load of shame.

Her son is unmoved next to her, untouched by their Lord's fury.

The Dark Lord not so much. He is obviously as touched by the wordless curse, and feeling waves of it if the way he firmly grips the table is anything to by. Yet, he stays sitting on his chair, refusing to be taken to the ground with what she assumes are mounts of willpower and spite. 

The curse ends as abruptly as it had begun.

Their Lord uncrosses his arms. 'He comes with me,' he repeats with a charming grin on his fair face. No trace of his fury is visible on it. 

No one contests his claim. 

'Draco,' he calls her son with a pleased smile and big, innocent eyes. As if he did not just send experienced fighters and killers to the ground without a word or a gesture. 'You have an hour to say goodbye to your parents and pack a bag. I will be in the kitchens.'

His feet don't make a sound as He leaves. She understands why when she sees Him pass through the still open doors: his body is floating mere centimeters above the wooden floor.

*

The Great Battle does not happen at Hogwarts.

And while they lose many people, none of them are from Harry's year or bellow. It seems like they were all protected during the duration of the battle, as if drunk by very potent Felix Felicis.

Or, _protected by a Deity_.

*

None of them ever see Merlin again.

(although Teddy swears the kind man with blue blue eyes and big ears is the one who keeps offering him Teddy bears in all the colors imaginable).

**Author's Note:**

> In conclusion, every child except Harry gets to be saved and protected by Merlin. Ah! Really sorry but Merlin has learned his lesson with Destiny Ages Ago. He does not mess anymore with Her, even if it means he can not save that lone boy who already lost a lot.  
> Merlin empathizes with him, though. He knows all too well the prices Destiny makes you pay, in addition to the burdens she places on you.  
> Bitch.  
> (and yes, it's my final word)


End file.
